Amazing Time Here

The days are so full that bloggin is getting cut out. But tonight Michael Hodge will be the guest blogger. This place is just so amazing. The main highlights so far are:
--our work at Fe y Alegria school, run by Holy Cross here, 2,000 poor students from K-12.
--our time at Yancana Huasy, a rehabilitation center where trained therapists go to do house visits to teach families how to care for children or siblings with severe palsy or Downs. Also quite common is a child who as an infant had fever, the family had no way to lower it (a simple Advil would have done it, but no they had access and maybe a local remedy did not work), the fever went to 104, brain damage occurred and the child is crippled for life. In Peru, this is quite common and often families are ashamed of having a member like this (same as in other places, but in wealthier world people can be ¨hidden¨easier.) Anyway the parish here runs Yancana Huasy to change this situation. The therapists are amazingly devoted, a few strike me as true saints.
--we are also working with the poorest section of the city, Belen (Bethlehem), working with the kids there and sharing some fun time in the festive days (Independence Day is Saturday)
--we are painting the very old and paint-deprived walls of another chapel in the parish here. By the way, this is one of the largest parishes in the world, over 200,000, though many here (also as at home) do not go to Mass. The name of the parish is Lord of Hope parish. And that is the mission of Holy Cross here: hope. No illusions about ¨fixing¨ Peru, just sharing life here and seeing the hope amidst suffering.

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